PENNTAP helps Mexico establish technical assistance program

University Park, Pa. --- PENNTAP, Penn State's Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program, in partnership with the National Technology Transfer Center (NTTC) at Wheeling Jesuit University, recently provided training for the first corps of agents pioneering a new technical assistance program in Mexico based on the PENNTAP model.

Jack Gido, PENNTAP director, conducted an inaugural three-day workshop for advisers and government service representatives at the Institute of Superior Studies of Tamaulipas in Tampico, Mexico. Twenty participants from six Mexican states and the Federal District of Mexico participated in the program, which covered organization, resource development, outreach and promotion and working one-on-one with clients.

Raul Carvajal Moreno, coordinator of the System of Technological and Business Assistance (SATE) for the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Science said, "The workshop was a magnificent start for our program. Everyone who participated learned the advantages of mutual cooperation. PENNTAP is a leader among technical assistance providers because of the cooperative spirit with which it works with other programs and organizations. We want to incorporate that same spirit in our new program."

The new Mexican technical assistance program will focus first on automotive service shops and then on software development and metalworking sectors. The program that will start in the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Veracruz will include assistance for environmental protection issues.

Prior to the training program, officials from Mexico visited Penn State to learn more about PENNTAP, which provides free technical assistance and information to Pennsylvania businesses for specific technical needs that can be addressed in a limited amount of time. Gido and Tracee Joltes, NTTC vice president for training, also visited Mexico to learn about automotive service shop needs.

The training program that Gido presented in Mexico was developed by a U.S. multi-state consortium of technical assistance providers led by PENNTAP and NTTC. The program has been offered more than 60 times in the United States, most recently for 21 participants from Pennsylvania industrial resource centers, PENNTAP, and the Pa. Department of Community and Economic Development. The program has also been presented recently for manufacturing extension program
participants in Texas and Oklahoma.

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